President Solih vows to win election runoff by a landslide

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih says that he will identify and rectify the mistakes, and win the election runoff by a landslide.

He made the vow during a campaign rally in MDP’s center in Machangolhi district of Male’ on Tuesday night.

Speaking at the rally, President Solih said he does not believe winning the election is a difficult task.

“I believe we can turn this around in the next 17 days. We can win the election by a landslide,” he said.

President Solih acknowledged the hard work of his campaign teams over the last two months and thanked them.

He noted that Maldives had seen a turnout of 87-90 percent in past presidential elections, but the first round of voting last Saturday had seen a turnout of under 80 percent.

Statistics released by the Elections Commission (EC) places the turnout at 79 percent – the lowest turnout in a presidential election.

“This hasn’t happened in past elections in Maldives. I am sure we can produce a greater turnout than this if we work harder. The statistics show that a lot of people who pledged their votes to us did not vote,” he said.

President Solih said the MDP must identify the reasons why they didn’t vote, whether they were neglectful of the voting time, or whether transport arrangements weren’t made.

He said that the MDP can win the election if it can boost the turnout.

President Solih had lost the first round of voting in the presidential election to the opposition PPM-PNC’s candidate, Dr. Mohamed Muizzu by a margin of seven percent. Muizzu won 46 percent of votes, while President Solih won 39 percent.

The runoff will be held on September 30.